Aspire to Inspire 017: Mike Fiebach

At a time when social media is at the forefront of branding for the music industry, it is essential to be on top of your game with predicting new trends or finding the next big thing in digital marketing, but staying on top means conducting a substantial amount of research; executing effectively takes time. Well, what if you don’t have the time or the resources to begin your search and to be effective once you know what to execute? Fortunately, there is a company out there who specializes in digital marketing and will take this weight off your shoulders. Fame House, a US-based digital marketing company is your solution.

Founder of Fame House, Mike Fiebach – a 29-year-old digital marketing strategist from Philadelphia, began working with DJ Shadow (a pioneer of electronic music) in 2006, helping to build, market, and manage his online presence, merchandise, and branding. For five years, Mike received an immersive and remarkable experience being a part of DJ Shadow’s team. Due to his success and a rapid-growing market for social media (Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, etc.), Mike decided it was time to help more than just one person with their digital marketing campaign. In 2011, Mike created this now massive digital empire – Fame House.

Fame House launched in San Francisco (where Mike was living at the time), but expanded rapidly following Mike’s move back to his hometown of Philadelphia, after making key hires such as Eric Hahn, Katonah Coster, and Sam Huntington. Fame House has recently expanded across the world – with offices now in Philly, San Francisco, Berlin, and Amsterdam, with more offices coming soon. Since organic growth has been Mike’s mindset throughout his life, his goal was to build Fame House naturally – solely in response to the demand for online marketing…meaning he did little fundraising for his company in its early days. As the demand for his platform has increased, he has been challenged to manage more clients and more employees as well. Growing from one to ten employees posed as a difficult task for Mike, but he overcame this struggle by looking at it as a positive learning experience. Even though organic growth often takes time, the patience has been worthwhile. Mike grew the company in this organic fashion from 1 to 20 employees and then sold the business to Robert FX Sillerman‘s publicly held SFX (NASDAQ:SFXE) in October of 2013.

Currently, there are over 40 employees at Fame House who focus on one thing: digital marketing. From reading books and blogs to traveling across the globe to conferences and training, to strategizing and executing digital marketing for some of the largest and most respected entertainment brands in the world, these 40+ employees conduct internal research day in and day out. They are each trained to observe the digital space and to pick out when a trend is about to occur. Mike has no plans for the company to expand into other sectors of the music industry because digital marketing alone is so powerful. Digital marketing is what team members at Fame House know and understand. However, since they are now owned by SFX, his company has been exposed to other types of businesses to perform their services for – promoters, festivals, and large brands for instance. SFX has served as a huge support system for Fame House and has given Mike and his employees direction and helpful advice throughout their journey. Today, Fame House’s music industry clientele list includes Eminem, Tiesto, Amanda Palmer, Ultra Music, Mysteryland, Beatport, Q-Dance, Now! That’s What I Call Music, International Music Summit, and Pearl Jam to name a few. Needless to say, they work on campaigns with some of the biggest players in the game.

The past few years there has been a strong debate over people “buying” likes on Facebook or creating false accounts to make it look like they have a bigger following than they really do. This is similar to payola. They both are illegitimate tactics and are intended to help someone grow more rapidly than others. It’s a challenge to those who exhibit organic growth because they aren’t “cheating the system” and most likely experience growth/success at a slower rate. Since Fame House grew organically, it is their goal to help others do just the same. They pride themselves on launching marketing campaigns organically. When Mike speaks at conferences (ADE, SXSW, and IMS for example), he is determined to stimulate people’s thinking about issues such as these occurring in the music industry. He preaches positivity, forward thinking, and innovation to those who are looking to come together and make a positive impact on the music industry. Fame House has never, and pledges they will never, purchase bogus social media followers. Every tactic Fame House employs is through organic marketing and branding or legitimate advertising.

Mike aspires to build Fame House into a larger global agency with SFX and through his success wants to inspire others to create something that will one day change the world. He loves creating something and watching it grow – it’s what he has done with Fame House and his individual clients. The dance music industry continues to inspire him because it is constantly growing and changing and he feels blessed to be a part of the evolution. Everyday this industry and culture challenges us to be unique and to make a positive impact on society. Through forward thinking and the ability to stay on their toes, we believe that Mike Fiebach and the Fame House team are in the music industry for the long haul.

Aspire to Inspire. I’m here to foster connection, and inspire authenticity and resilience through storytelling. I love to troll. I don’t do music reviews. Indiana University alum. People call me TheRageBoss. I totaled the Driver’s Ed car, but I still passed with an A.